Trees snapped up at giveaway

Shoppers visiting Fosse Park have branched out to take home a free tree during Great Big Green Week.

2,000 trees, made up of Hazel, Crab apple, Dog rose, and Downy birch were available for visitors to Fosse Park from a special Blaby District Council stand beside Next.

Many shoppers enthusiastically snapped up the trees to take home and plant in their garden, which were given away for the Queen’s Green Canopy.

The Queen’s Green Canopy is giving people the chance to plant trees in memoriam to honour Her Majesty the Queen. A nationwide campaign, the Queen’s Green Canopy is expected to create a living legacy with over a million trees planted in Her Majesty’s name across the UK.

The Great Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. Running until Sunday 02 October, Great Big Green Week is gathering support for action to protect the planet.

Local businesses Aggregate Industries and opticians Edmonds and Slatter sponsored the tree giveaway, whilst Fosse Park kindly donated the spot for the event as part of their actions for Great Big Green Week.

This September, Fosse Park have been inviting visitors to discover the sustainable practices that they and their retailers are progressing collectively to make positive small steps for the environment. As part of this activity, Fosse Park has a number of interactive events taking place including free bike health checks, discovering local walking trails and many more. For more information please visit the Fosse Park webpage.

Councillor Les Phillimore, Portfolio Holder for Housing, Community and Environmental Services: “It’s been fantastic to see so many people take advantage of taking home a tree for their garden.

“This is the perfect time to be planting a tree and it really does make a positive difference. We are incredibly grateful to our sponsors and to Fosse Park for enabling us to run this event for the Queen’s Green Canopy.

“Any trees we have left are going to be given away to community groups and schools to make sure every last sapling we have is used.”

Blaby District Council is committed to becoming a carbon neutral council by 2030, and for the district to become carbon neutral by 2050. More information, including the Queen’s Green Canopy, can be found on the Climate Change page.

Portfolio Holder for Housing, Community and Environmental Services, Councillor Les Phillimore